'03 camper won't fit on my '05 truck

[Dieselnerd]

My 2003 Northern Lite doesn't fit on my new truck! My last project after the fifth wheel hitch was to install my camper tie downs. As soon as I was done I tried out my camper. It's a close fit in the tail section but it was on my '96 as well. The problem happened as I was lowering the camper. Before the bottom of the camper was on the bed, the overhang was touching the roof of the truck! I guess the 3rd gen cabs are higher. Since it's an '03 camper I thought it should fit a 3rd gen body that came out in '03. No such luck. I contacted the factory and they said I needed to get a two inch thick piece of 4'x8' high density foam (Like Owens Corning pink foam house insulation) and put that in the bed and put the camper on top of it. I have the foam and will be trying it out early next week with a short camping trip. First I ever heard of using foam insulation to raise a camper though. Nice thing is it's very light, the foam must weigh around 5 pounds or less. Anyone ever heard of this method instead of using heavy wood boards? My only concern is it may compress over time but maybe not.

 

[CHubbard]

Truck camper Spacer

I have a Bigfoot 1500 that I carry on my 2003 Dodge/Cummins 2500. The top-of-bed to top-of-cab creates interference on mine as well. I have 3" aluminum spacer created just to solve this problem. It is essentially 'ladder' type thing and is Rino liner coated to improve grip. I just put it on top of the supports I built when I unload the camper (it self stores). It is light, easy to load/unload, and necessary for my setup.

 

[GRudy]

My camper is a '94 Lance Squire 8000. The first time I set it down on my 05 I only had 1/4" clearance to the bed rails and about 1" to the roof. I bought a sheet of 3/4" plywood and laid it in the bed and put my rubber mat over top. I only hauled the camper one time so far and it seemed to work just fine. I also have to put a 2 x 4 in front of the camper or my tail lights almost hit.

 

[GFritsch]

I have the same situation with our Bigfoot. I use two bed mats with a 3/4" plywood in between. Works fine.

 

[Rman]

I use a 5/8" piece of plywood in my bed to put the camper over the Atwood folding goose ball hitch I have. The square is cut out of the middle perfectly so it acts like an anchor when trying to move the plywood. The rhino liner in the bed grips the wood very well wen the camper is installed anyway. I never thought of using foam, perhaps it's slight compressability would act like more of a shock absorber?

 

[Dieselnerd]

Update

I took a camping trip with the 2" Owens Corning foam in the bed. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I wouldn't believe it. The foam did not compress and it raised the camper enough to clear the roof of the cab by almost 2 inches at the tightest spot. When I removed the camper, the foam was not compressed. The side facing the bottom of the bed did have some slight indents that matched the bed but they were no more than about 1/8" deep. It looks like the way to go and certainly saves weight over plywood or other boards. I learned something new.

 

[JCrockett]

That is high density foam and it will not compress. The DOT specs it out up here to put in the roads when we rehab them. To help with the permafrost situation. On one job we had a couple years ago we had about a mile of two lane road to put the stuff down. Looked goofy as hell, bunch of laborers out there putting 4x8 sheets of foam insulation in the road before we cover it up with base course. The also used the spray foam to fix a bridge abutment that had been washed out. Just sprayed it undeer the concete and backfilled it. Still working great. The stuff is great! and like you said it is light weight.